Studio blog of Annie Bissett, an artist working with traditional Japanese woodblock printing (moku hanga)

29 July 2005

The Hanshita (Sketch)

The sketch that becomes the basis for carving is called the hanshita in Japanese. For my prints, I've been drawing the design by hand in black and white, then scanning it so I can make multiple identical copies to be pasted onto the blocks. I also use the computer to work out where the design will be on the block (the outline of the block is shown in blue), how the paper will align over the carved areas (the paper is shown in red), and where I will carve the very important registration marks (the black corner mark and side mark). When doing multiple color/multiple block prints, the registration marks, called the kento, ensure that all the colors will align correctly with each other.

A couple of the blocks I originally carved are OK to be used as they are, but there are several I will need to carve again, so using the same hanshita will ensure that my new blocks match the old blocks.

1 comment:

The hanshita that you paste onto your block should be very thin. I use wrapping tissue, which I can send through my computer printer after it is lightly adhered to a standard paper sheet covered with spray adhesive. I like to have the ink facing up so that it does not run when it comes in contact with the paste on the block. This means I need to flip the image over after it comes out of the printer. With the tissue refixed to the backing it is easy to lay it down onto the block rubbing out the air bubbles. Peel away the backing and Presto, timber grain clearly visible under the tissue. I include an entire border around my image to take the kento marks from. From this border I can check that the image has transferred nice and square.